Can’t see all user through dscl command - broken user profile

jemmick wrote:

Ok so I made a big mistake and moved my user home folder. When I tried to restart the machine keep freezing on load after password.

Moving your Home folder is a dangerous idea, unless it's done properly. Did you create a second admin, and then use that admin to do the move and update the relevant fields? This article can act as a guide for next time: Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder - Apple Support

I have tried launching into disk utility and I can’t see my core user in the readall command.

Which command did you use? I'm not sure if I'm familiar with it. (I do know about "diskutil listusers" and "diskutil apfs listusers".)

My computer is tied to a domain so I don’t know if that is part of the issue or what.

Potentially, but probably not. Unfortunately I don't have much experience with mobile user accounts (ones that are tied to domain services such as Active Directory).

Then I thought, no problem I will just add a new user. I got through all the terminal commands but it won’t let me set the password for a user.

Which Terminal commands did you use? Did you run the commands from an admin account?

After that I decided to try and boot into single user mode. It’s getting stuck on the Apple load screen.

Recent Macs have begun to block out Single User Mode. It still exists, even in macOS Monterey, but you might have to take special measures to enter Single User Mode:

• On Intel-based Macs without the T2 Security Chip, holding down Command-S at startup should still work.

• On Intel-based Macs with the T2 Security Chip, you might have to set a boot-args variable in Terminal (nvram boot-args="-s"). If that doesn't work, you might have to first disable the relevant part of System Integrity Protection in macOS Recovery ("csrutil enable --without nvram", or "csrutil disable"). To stop starting up in Single User Mode, run this command: nvram boot-args=""

• On Macs with Apple silicon (M1 family and future), you have to downgrade to Permissive Security and disable the relevant part of System Integrity Protection (same as Intel-based Macs with T2). Then, start up in a healthy copy of macOS that has the same downgraded csrutil settings, and set the correct boot-args variable (same as Intel-based Macs).

I then thought I would just reinstall but my VM has gotten to big and I don’t have enough space on the drive.

Are you referring to a virtual machine? Or do you mean the APFS VM volume on your Mac? (Check "diskutil apfs list")

Can anyone help with the terminal commands? I need to either reset the user home folder location or login as a another user so I can reset from the GUI.

There is an old Setup Assistant exploit that still works to this day, if you can get access to Terminal in macOS Recovery. The exploit works by deleting a special file created after setup. This tricks the Mac into thinking that it is fresh out of the box, and it re-runs Setup Assistant again, letting you create a new admin account (likely without a SecureToken).

1. Start up in macOS Recovery: Hold down Command-R as you power on or restart your Intel-based Mac. Release the keys when the Apple logo and a progress bar appear.
2. If you're prompted for an admin password, enter it to continue. If that doesn't work, look for a way to circumvent this requirement (providing a FileVault key or authenticating Activation Lock).
3. The list of utilities should appear. Select Disk Utility and click Continue.
4. In Disk Utility, select Macintosh HD in the sidebar. If it has an icon looking like a stack of papers, click the arrow to reveal the volumes inside the volume group.
5. Select Macintosh HD (the individual volume), and make sure it is mounted. Take note of this volume's name
6. If "Macintosh HD" or "Macintosh HD - Data" also appears, make sure that is mounted too.
7. Quit Disk Utility.
8. The list of utilities should re-appear. At the top of the screen, select Utilities -> Terminal.
9. Assuming your startup volume is named "Macintosh HD", run this command: rm "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/.AppleSetupDone"
10. If the command was successful, restart your Mac. If FileVault is enabled, you might be asked to log in first - do so to continue.
11. The Setup Assistant should now appear. When asked to migrate data, skip that step and make a new admin account instead. Be sure to give it a different username than your regular account.
12. Use the new admin account to fix your regular account.